Simosuchus

Simosuchus
Temporal range: Late Cretaceous, 70–66 Ma
Reconstructed skeleton in Royal Ontario Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Clade: Archosauria
Clade: Pseudosuchia
Clade: Crocodylomorpha
Clade: Crocodyliformes
Clade: Notosuchia
Clade: Ziphosuchia
Genus: Simosuchus
Buckley et al., 2000
Species
  • S. clarki Buckley et al., 2000 (type)

Simosuchus is an extinct genus of notosuchian crocodyliforms from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar. It is named for its unusually short skull. Fully grown individuals were about 0.75 metres (2.5 ft) in length. The type species is Simosuchus clarki, found from the Maevarano Formation in Mahajanga Province, although one isolated multicuspid tooth of this genus was discovered in Kallamedu Formation of India.[1]

The teeth of S. clarki were shaped like maple leaves, which coupled with its short and deep snout suggests it was not a carnivore like most other crocodylomorphs. In fact, these features have led many palaeontologists to consider it a herbivore.

  1. ^ Prasad, Guntupalli V. R.; Verma, Omkar; Flynn, John J.; Goswami, Anjali (2013). "A new Late Cretaceous vertebrate fauna from the Cauvery Basin, South India: implications for Gondwanan paleobiogeography". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 33 (6): 1260–1268. doi:10.1080/02724634.2013.777348. S2CID 131192480.